Strong second-half start helps Eagles evade Lions
January 21, 2026

Strong second-half start helps Eagles evade Lions

MARS HILL, N.C. – Trailing by six at the halftime break, Carson-Newman (10-7, 5-6 South Atlantic Conference) needed a spark on the road at Mars Hill (9-8, 3-8 SAC). 

VIDEO: Chuck Benson Interview

VIDEO: Highlights

VIDEO: Keliese Frye Interview

VIDEO: Rylan Houck Interview

MARS HILL, N.C. – Trailing by six at the halftime break, Carson-Newman (10-7, 5-6 South Atlantic Conference) needed a spark on the road at Mars Hill (9-8, 3-8 SAC). 

The Eagles got one in the form of Jack Browder (Kingsport, Tenn.).  The SAC's leading scorer canned four straight threes and helped C-N outscore the Lions on a 16-4 run over the opening five minutes of the second stanza.  The Eagles flipped that six-point deficit into a six-point lead before going on to win 87-81 Wednesday night at Burt Stanford Arena. 

The win extends Carson-Newman's winning streak over the Lions to five straight.  C-N has won 10 of the last 11 over the Lions. However, this is the first game on that streak where C-N hasn't won by double-digits.  That underscores the improvement Mars Hill has made under first-year head coach and former C-N associate head coach KT Carter. 

"I tell you how good of a job KT has done," head coach Chuck Benson said. "I've never had this happen.  The President of Mars Hill came and found me, the vice president came and found me.  Both of them said to me, 'Thank you, he's more than we could have imagined.' I knew they were getting a special one, I knew we were losing a special one. It makes me nothing but happy to see him win almost every game.  I'm not that generous.

"Today was a great opportunity for friends and former teammates to compete.  Our guys were thankfully able to get the job done after a really good second half performance."

The win is the second for C-N when trailing at the half this season, and the first away from Holt Fieldhouse. 

Mars Hill led 40-34 at the halftime break.  C-N started the second half 6-of-8 from beyond the arc to power the comeback effort.  Browder's first three got C-N within one, 43-42, two minutes into the second half.  His next tied the game 29 seconds later at 45. 

After a Marvin Hires tipin tied the game for the Lions at 47, Browder connected on back-to-back threes that gave C-N a six-point lead, its largest of the game. 

"It goes back to at the half," Benson said. "The attitude in the locker room was as good as it has been this season. The collaboration between coaches and players was as good as it has been this season. We could have made other decisions that may have negatively impacted us the second half.  The collaborations to figure out some problems that we had encountered defensively." 

Mars Hill would snag a lead at 66-65 following a Christian Foy three from the left wing to cap a 10-5 Lion run with 9:14 to go.  However, MHU wouldn't score for the next three minutes while C-N rattled off a 6-0 run to take the lead for good.  Carson-Newman went 6-for-6 at the stripe in the final 45 seconds to ice the win. 

Carson-Newman shot 53.3 percent from the field after halftime, and made 8-of-16 second half threes. 

"KT had a strong defensive plan in place," Benson said. "He did exactly what I thought he was going to do.  Despite that, it was hard to deal with. We were able to come up as one after halftime and we were able to capitalize on the adjustments that we made." 

Carson-Newman's three-point marksmanship was needed.  The Lions were 13-of-27 from beyond the arc. MHU went 7-of-10 from deep in the first half, but cooled off and made 6-of-17 after halftime.  This was just the second time MHU has lost a game this season when making 10 or more threes.

"They were a little bit less efficient the second half," Benson said. "I didn't like some of the ones we gave up the first.  Credit to them, it's not like we were playing some bad defense.  They were making some tough, dribble up, non-rhythm threes.  We gave up a couple that we had given specific instructions on how to take them away. We did not did as good enough job defending the three, but we still found a way to win." 

Carson-Newman finished the game shooting 50.0 percent from the field.  C-N also knocked down 20-of-25 free throws.  Meanwhile, the Eagles limited MHU to 42.9 percent shooting, including a 36.4 mark in the second half. 

Browder paced C-N with 25 – his 45th career 20-point outing.  He knocked down 5-of-9 threes. 

Keliese Frye (Newport, Ky.) stuffed the stat sheet with a near first-career double-double.  He had 12 points, nine boards with four on the offensive glass, four assists, three steals and three blocks.  The rebounds, blocks and assists were all career highs. 

Rylan Houck (Oxford, Ala.) turned in an efficient 19 on 6-of-10 shooting. 

Braden Ilic (Morristown, Tenn.) was Carson-Newman's fourth double-digit scorer.  He had 17 points and 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the season and the fourth of his career.

"Keliese, good gracious," Benson said. "He was a catalyst on both ends of the floor.  Braden had a bust out night shooting the ball well from two and three, while getting a double-double. Rylan has put together back-to-back quality performances and had some really tough finishes getting to the basket.  So many guys did good things.  But I see more than I hear, and what I saw was a team that was locked in, listened and made adjustments with follow through. It was more than talk." 

Lenoir-Rhyne transfer Jaheim Taylor led the Lions with 16 points.  He was 4-of-7 from deep. Keenan Wilkins added 15 to go with six assists, while Christian Foy had 12 off the bench on a flawless 4-of-4 effort from range. 

Mars Hill's bench scored 43 points. Carson-Newman owned a 37-32 edge on the boards and had a 30-16 edge in points in the paint.  

Carson-Newman faces a tight turnaround. C-N's contest at Catawba has been moved up a day to Friday. Tipoff is still at 4 p.m. Coverage will be available on the Eagle Sports Network starting at 3:45 with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff on Talk 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.  A live look at press row with the radio broadcast can be found on YouTube. 

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